X (from X's Adventures in Minecraft) recently posted a long blog post about what he thinks Minecraft is missing, and he makes a few interesting points, but what struck me were his comments on the Nether:

X said:

In fact, I can picture Haste, Jump, Fireball, and an upgraded bow making the Nether seem easier to handle. And hey, maybe people wouldn’t have to turn the game to Peaceful just to travel in the Nether!

And yes, I realize the Nether is SUPPOSED to be a hellish place where if you linger for any length of time, you’ll die. But if a player puts forth the time and energy into creating the necessary resources through adventuring (spells, armor, powerful weapons, plenty of food), that player should be able to enjoy the reward of being able to face the Nether and actually use it for fast travel between Nether gates. Isn’t that what the Nether was originally made for, anyway? Give players a way to use it without having to switch to Peaceful.

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This made me wonder, do you guys struggle with the Nether? Because I have a working portal network set up and I haven't yet died in there. I admit that I set it to peaceful when fixing the glitched portals so that they work the way they're supposed to (Notch, be a dear and fix that at some point) but everything else I've done in the Nether has been legit, including a sky-bridge across a cavern that I built while two ghasts were attacking me. Even that wasn't so hard because I was building it from cobblestone and ghasts can't destroy cobblestone.

I just find it odd because he spends most of the post complaining that the game needs more of a challenge to it, but in the part of the game that's a bit more challenging than the rest, he complains that it needs to be made easier.

Anyway, I've upgraded Mount Vulcan with some rooms, a dock, a rail-station and a much more impressive lava-flow. I am now ready to begin work on the final section of my rail/path/tunnel network to Bartlet cove, completing a 6-month old project.

I like the minecraft-videos X made, but I do think that he wants Minecraft to be something totally different than it is. He says that he is bored with the game, and all new stuff doesn't really matter as long as the game is what it is.

The problem is that the game is a sandbox-game, and will probably be so even if there's a few small things like achivements och stuff added just for flavour.

I get the feeling that X want to explore and stuff. Not build.

I'm a crappy builder. Therefore I like the building-videos. Coe is the favourite of course. MyGamersInsanity is also quite good, and he must have one of the longest LP:s out therer (he began when you still started in that house and had choices about how the world should be generated).

The ones I watch for exploration and fun is Guude, Jsano and MyselfOverwhelmed.

I would say that the Nether is an extremely dicey prospect for more novice players. First, you have to acquire obsidian, and players who don't know the tricks for creating it artificially will be stuck until they get some diamond on their hands.

Then, once they get to the Nether, they'll be dodging fireballs from Ghasts all over the place. It's not a region I've been interested in building in, either. While it can be visually impressive, there's a "sameness" about it that makes its vistas less interesting overall than the surface world.

I think the Nether is too tough to be used in any practical way by more novice players unless they go Peaceful. The difficulty slider in this game doesn't really work, as far as I'm concerned. You have Peaceful, and then varying degrees of Hard.

In the spirit of Minecraft, I'd still love it if the game gave you a lot of fine-tuning options. Let you spawn worlds using various sliders, pick which mobs you want to spawn and how often, change the game rules, etc. etc. Imagine having a checkbox that allows monsters to spawn in daylight and not have them burn to death. You could have options to make the game harder or easier--depending on your preference.

That's kind of my main beef with the game. It's very open-ended as to what you can build and how you explore, but that sort of freedom is sorely lacking on the game mechanics side.

The problem is that the game is a sandbox-game, and will probably be so even if there's a few small things like achivements och stuff added just for flavour.

I get the feeling that X want to explore and stuff. Not build.

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I love building, which is one of the reasons why I love this game, but I do enjoy exploring as well and I agree with X that it would be cool if there were more things to explore in the world. One of my favourite memories of the game was the time I went on a 6-day boat-trip to try and circumnavigate my island (and subsequently realised I wasn't on an island and had to turn back ). I'd love to be able to go on an adventure like that again, but the only thing I can explore at this point that I haven't experienced before would be a desert biome and that wouldn't be much different than the large beach I started out on.

A system like Spore, where people could upload their creations and the world generator randomly (and rarely) added these structures to the world would be really cool. And Notch has said he wants NPC villages in the game at some point, which I would welcome.

I would say that the Nether is an extremely dicey prospect for more novice players. First, you have to acquire obsidian, and players who don't know the tricks for creating it artificially will be stuck until they get some diamond on their hands.

Then, once they get to the Nether, they'll be dodging fireballs from Ghasts all over the place. It's not a region I've been interested in building in, either. While it can be visually impressive, there's a "sameness" about it that makes its vistas less interesting overall than the surface world.

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I agree about the sameness of the Nether and I don't build there myself, I just use it as a fast-transit network. But if I, a guy that is scared of going into caves because of spiders and creepers, can successfully transit the Nether with no difficulty, I don't see how a so-called adventurer like X would have any trouble with it. I actually find the Nether to be safer than caves in the main world because ghasts are easy to see and make a lot of noise, unlike ninja creepers that drop down on your head from dark holes in the ceiling.

The nether has almost zero value to me. My main world I created before they added it, and I've got a massive rail network going on for transport. Building in the nether never appealed as it looks bland against trees. Assuming I'm starting a new world, then maybe I build a transport network there but no reason to live there or run about for anything more than gathering.

As for difficulty levels, I play on peaceful. The combat is easy and un-fun, random creepers blowing stuff up isn't fun, waiting for zombies to burn each morning while I wait isn't fun. There's zero value in having monsters turned on. If I want to fight monsters, then I'm playing a different game. Building is what I'm here for, not bad and basically annoying combat.

I on the other hand think I would get bored without the monsters. It just adds that extra bit of a challenge. Not to mention goodies like bones, arrows, and dungeons.

As for the Nether, to me its pretty much useless after I've harvested a couple stacks of netherrack and glowdust. Plus its so damn dark I'm afraid to wander far for fear of taking a header off a cliff.

I never could figure out how to do a portal system (not that I do that much long distance travelling anyway).
Otoh, its not THAT hard to survive down there. Just bring lots of torches and cobble and get a wall up around the portal asap.

Minecraft vids? Coe is cool, but I'm also a big fan of Yogscast. They've turned the game into a giant adventure game.

And yeah, I'm with Robert. A screen full of checkboxes so you can customize the game to your hearts content would be great.

The Nether, I've found, actually feels like it needs a considerable boost in difficulty. Just because I was impatient, I created an inventory-edited world separate from my main world and went in to the Nether with only an iron chest plate, an iron sword, an iron pick and a bow with 99 arrows and I was able to survive in the Nether for about two weeks just by ducking the Ghasts, building temporary Netherrack shelters and hunting isolated Pigmen for their tasty bacon. On Hard difficulty, mind you!

The nether has almost zero value to me. My main world I created before they added it, and I've got a massive rail network going on for transport. Building in the nether never appealed as it looks bland against trees. Assuming I'm starting a new world, then maybe I build a transport network there but no reason to live there or run about for anything more than gathering.

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It depends on the size of your world. In my world, it takes around 7 minutes to walk from my main base to Mount Vulcan, and whenever I realise that I need some resource that I left behind in my main base, I can just pop into the Nether, collect it and be back at Mount Vulcan in no time. Even the best railway system wouldn't be that fast. It also allows me to connect up outposts that I haven't been able to connect in the main world yet, such as my snow biome outpost.

I on the other hand think I would get bored without the monsters. It just adds that extra bit of a challenge. Not to mention goodies like bones, arrows, and dungeons.

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I wouldn't say that playing with monsters on is a challenge, but it is far more suspenseful. Earlier on, I realised that the future site of my rail-track was going to run near some caves, and I had to explore them and light them up to keep me safe while working on it, and using it. I went into one, which was L-shaped, and after stumbling in I saw a creeper approaching from the darkness of the other branch. I retreated with my sword out, but he was approaching from a higher level and I knew the sword wouldn't be effective, so I pulled out my bow. Or tried to, because I accidentally skipped it and ended up waving my watch in the air. It was one of those weird Minecraft moments where something silly yet terrifying had happened, and I had to struggle to keep calm to get my bow out while he continued to approach me.

I set the game to peaceful on rare occasions if I'm working on big, boring projects that I want to get over with quickly, but turning it off all the time means that I'd miss suspenseful moments like that.

I never could figure out how to do a portal system (not that I do that much long distance travelling anyway).

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When you create a portal in the main world, sometimes the corresponding location in the Nether is off-limits, either because it's solid rock or a lava lake, so that portal gets moved to the nearest available location. But because one block in the Nether is eight blocks in the main world, if the portal has to be moved 10 blocks in the Nether, when you try to exit the portal it will create a second portal in the main world 80 blocks away from your first one. To fix it, you have to guess the distance between the two portals in the main world, divide that by eight, then move the portal in the Nether by that number of blocks.

It takes a few attempts, and it's really tedious considering how long it takes to mine obsidian, but it's very advantageous if you have a large world.

One day, I plan to enter the Nether with a bed, some basic supplies and just enough obsidian to make another portal, travel in one direction for about an hour, exit the Nether in some newly-generated land, and see how long it takes me to trek home.

It depends on the size of your world. In my world, it takes around 7 minutes to walk from my main base to Mount Vulcan, and whenever I realise that I need some resource that I left behind in my main base, I can just pop into the Nether, collect it and be back at Mount Vulcan in no time. Even the best railway system wouldn't be that fast. It also allows me to connect up outposts that I haven't been able to connect in the main world yet, such as my snow biome outpost.

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My world's longest journey by rail is about 9mins (from far to far end), it's pre-biomes so I needed walk for ages to find snowy and sandy areas. It's not all about the time it takes to get somewhere, but the time I need to be active during it. My rail network lets me flick a few leavers and jump in a cart, then I can tab out and come back being exactly where I want to be. Portals require me to run about a bit before I get there adding unneeded hassle (I really dislike hassle).